Tuesday, November 01, 2005
holy hell...
what a PR debacle for the Red Sox. Theo Epstein is like Schuerholz and Francoeur combined up here, both the "brilliant" general manager and the homegrown golden child. His departure is almost unthinkable, and from the reaction up here seems to have instantly turned the fanbase against the current ownership.
Supposedly this Dan Shaughnessy column from Sunday played a major part in Epstein's decision. Shaugnessy is taking almost as much blame for the situation as Larry Lucchino, a guy most folks up here loved until the past week or so. No idea how crucial this column was in making up Theo's mind, but I can see how it would have pissed him off. Also, of course, as the Boston Herald and Phoenix regularly point out, the Globe is owned by the New York Times, who also own 17% of the Red Sox, and thus are business partners with Lucchino, John Henry, et al. The fact that the Globe's most prominent baseball writer was carrying water for his corporate brethren during negotiations is rather suspect, if not at all surprising.
This is massive front-page news up here, of course. I didn't watch the local network news, but I'm sure it dominated the first and last five minutes or so of every broadcast. These owners earned a seemingly infinite amount of goodwill after 2004, but it'll be interesting to see how much they have left after driving away their beloved public face.
what a PR debacle for the Red Sox. Theo Epstein is like Schuerholz and Francoeur combined up here, both the "brilliant" general manager and the homegrown golden child. His departure is almost unthinkable, and from the reaction up here seems to have instantly turned the fanbase against the current ownership.
Supposedly this Dan Shaughnessy column from Sunday played a major part in Epstein's decision. Shaugnessy is taking almost as much blame for the situation as Larry Lucchino, a guy most folks up here loved until the past week or so. No idea how crucial this column was in making up Theo's mind, but I can see how it would have pissed him off. Also, of course, as the Boston Herald and Phoenix regularly point out, the Globe is owned by the New York Times, who also own 17% of the Red Sox, and thus are business partners with Lucchino, John Henry, et al. The fact that the Globe's most prominent baseball writer was carrying water for his corporate brethren during negotiations is rather suspect, if not at all surprising.
This is massive front-page news up here, of course. I didn't watch the local network news, but I'm sure it dominated the first and last five minutes or so of every broadcast. These owners earned a seemingly infinite amount of goodwill after 2004, but it'll be interesting to see how much they have left after driving away their beloved public face.
